Connected Streams
by LightningStrike83
Summary: Marinette is a passionate streamer and let's player on the internet who never shows her face because of a past incident. One day, she meets another streamer who baits his audience using his looks. How will she react and what will she do when he contacts her asking for help? Streamer/Let's Play AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Hey there everyone and welcome to this new Miraculous story that I'm writing~ It's one of those that I'm writing because I enjoy writing it and have a lot of ideas for it too~ So hopefully y'all will like it too~ I'll try and update it bi-weekly and toss in oneshots or a different story in between :3 Anyways, enjoy :D

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

"Stay miraculous viewers!" the woman exclaimed, waving goodbye to the screen that was in front of her. With a click of her mouse, she cut off the feed to the video hosting service she was using to broadcast. She let out a large sigh and slumped in her chair, as she watched the chat room fill up with messages saying " _Goodbye Ladybug!_ "

She smiled, feeling happy seeing so much positivity coming her way. She was fortunate and thankful that she had such a nice and loyal fanbase. At the present moment, it was small but she preferred it to stay that way, especially after what happened when she had a large amount of "fans".

The woman's name was none other than Marinette Dupain-Cheng, a young adult who often streams video games for a living, alongside helping her parents with their family-run bakery. However, when she's online, she goes under the alias of "Ladybug", which is what all of her viewers know her as, except for those that are close to her.

She retrieved her phone from the side of her desk and checked her messages, seeing that she had only missed nine messages from her best friend and biggest fan, Alya Cesaire. Alya used to run a blog about heroism around France, but once she found out that Marinette had started up a channel on Twitch, she devoted most of her time to helping her out. A lot of the time these tasks included being a moderator in her chatroom, managing a Youtube channel for Ladybug's highlights of the streams, and networking with other channels for exposure. Marinette was thankful to have such a devoted friend to look after what she didn't have much time for, but she also felt guilty that she took up a lot of Alya's time with it. She told Alya once that she could continue her heroism blog, but she said that she enjoyed working with Marinette more.

She opened up the conversation and noticed that her friend was flipping out at her. Thankfully, it was in a positive way. She read out. "Girl… Check out this guy… Chat Noir on Twitch… You're going to love him… He's so popular… He just said he'd network with you… You have to do this… He's still streaming… Go and say hi."

Of course, her voice didn't match her friend's enthusiasm, but it appeared that her friend was serious and excited about this person. Marinette shrugged her shoulders and decided to search up the streamer her friend was talking about.

As the stream loaded, she looked around the man's channel page to get a feel of what he was like. He had a profile picture of a small black cat that was winking with a floating heart off to the side. The description underneath the stream was like most that you would find. Mainly rules for the stream and credits, nothing out of the ordinary, except for pictures of black cats that accompanied around the area. She felt it to be a bit weird that he loved black cats so much, but she thought it was just his gimmick; much like how hers was black spots on a red canvas like a Ladybug.

The stream finally loaded and she found that this streamer was playing one of her favourite games, Overwatch. He was playing as one of the tank characters known as Reinhardt. She looked up to the top right of the screen, where his webcam was located, and saw a young man that appeared to be no older than she was, was the one that was playing the game. He was quite handsome to her too, her face quickly covering itself with blush seeing him. The thought of playing with him didn't help any, but she managed to keep herself calm, and waited to see how he played before making any final judgements.

She sat and waited for gameplay on the screen, but none was shown. His character was stayed in the spawn area and just stood, not doing anything. She turned back to the webcam and saw that he was just posing for the camera.

She was irritated by this, that he wasn't actually playing the game. That's what streamers on the site were supposed to do, play a game for their audience to enjoy. She looked around his page and stream for signs of a charity mention, hoping that perhaps he was doing this for charity, but none were to be found.

She took to his chatroom and began typing. " _Aren't you going to go into battle?_ "

She sent the message, but it quickly became buried underneath many hearts and compliments from other viewers, that appeared to be enjoying this "show" he was putting on. She sat and waited, hoping that he was able to see the message. From experience, she knew it would take at least 30 seconds for him to see it, so she sat and watched him, to see if she would be acknowledged.

As soon as the time that she had to wait passed, she saw that he stopped his posing and leaned into the screen. He began chuckling. "Well Ladybug, do you really want these muscles to get hurt?"

She watched in disgust as he commanded his character to flex on the screen, as he joined in with him. She turned her attention towards the chat and saw that the girls were going wild, responding for her saying " _No! We don't want you to be hurt!_ "

She was furious watching this all go down. Her stomach began to churn too the more it went on. She couldn't take much more of the sight. However, before she left, she wanted to leave a final message for the man.

She began typing once more into his chat, sending a message that said " _Streamers like you make me sick. Never network with me._ "

After closing down the tab that had his stream on it, she stormed out of her room and made her way down to her kitchen to grab a drink to ease her nerves.

* * *

She returned back to her room a short while later, feeling calm now. In her hands was a plate of freshly baked cookies that her mother made while she was streaming. She was thankful for them, as her mother's baking always cheers her up no matter what went down.

She sat back in her chair and placed the plate beside her computer. She took a cookie with one of her hands and used her free hand to browse the websites she frequents, mainly checking her messages.

When she went back onto Twitch, she found that she had received a message from someone entitled "?". She nearly choked on her food from the sudden surprise when she read who it was from. She had to pound her chest a few times to get her breathing back to normal. She read the username again to confirm what she saw. The message came from none other than the streamer whom riled her up earlier, Chat Noir.

She was reluctant, but opened the message when curiosity took her over. The message read,

 _"Greetings Ladybug,_

 _I hope you don't mind my asking, but I'm curious as to how I "disgust you". I am genuinely concerned and hope to hear back from you sometime soon._

 _Sincerely, Chat Noir."_


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** Hey there everyone! :D

First, I just wanted to thank you all for the support for this new story! I've been reading all of your reviews and I have to say, it really makes me motivated to keep writing! :D I have a LOT of amazing ideas that I want to write for y'all so hopefully y'all will like them~

Second, I know I said I'd be updating this every other week but I wanted to give y'all this chapter first for two reasons~ 1) Because you guys deserve it 3 and 2) Because I'm working on another long fic and it wasn't ready for this week so Chapter 2's in place of it~ The new story will come next week!

Lastly, I just want to apologize if this is a bit dry XD I needed to advance the plot and this was the best I could come up with~ There will be gaming in the next chapter I promise! And it'll feature my third favourite game of all time too, Overwatch ouo But anyways, hope you guys enjoy this one!

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

Marinette remained motionless, as she re-read the message over and over again. She was suspicious of the message, didn't know what to make of it. During her time as a streamer, she has received some rather sarcastic messages from other users that she had to ignore. She couldn't tell though if this time was one of those times or not. It didn't seem like it, but the wording made her suspicious.

She sighed, and decided to take it for what it's worth. She did feel ashamed for what she said to the man earlier, having her temper get the best of her. If the message that Chat Noir sent really was genuine, then he at least deserved an explanation.

" _Hi Chat Noir,_

 _I may have let my temper get the best of me and I apologize. However, I do have a zero tolerance for people that flaunt their looks for views which is what you appeared to be doing and I was uncomfortable watching you do that. I came to your stream to check out your content and was greatly disappointed with what I found._

 _Ladybug_."

It wasn't long before she received a message back from the blond streamer.

" _Ladybug,_

 _I appreciate your honesty and I thank you for your reply. I'm sorry you felt uncomfortable with what you watched. Would you per chance be interested in helping me change my content?_

 _Sincerely, Chat Noir._ "

"Ch-change his content?" Marinette repeated out loud. She was surprised that he was asking such a question. She barely knows the guy and yet, he was asking for her help as if they were long-time friends. He didn't even know what her content was like, so why was he so sure that she would be able to help?

Things were still suspicious to her and she was getting worried about what his true motives could be. She wanted to just ignore the message and carry on with her life, but there was something deep down inside of her that mentally blocked her from doing that.

She sighed once more, and replied, accepting his offer. She gave him one of her Skype names in her message and told him that they would discuss details on there.

After sending the message, she signed into the instant messaging program and waited. She realized why, against her better judgement, why she was helping him. She has always been one to help others in need, even if she had to go out of her way for it no matter who they are. When he asked for help, she just couldn't say no because of this.

It was about ten minutes after she sent the message that she got a notification pop up on her desktop from Skype, saying that someone added her as a contact. As expected, the person was none other than Chat Noir.

Just after she confirmed him as a contact, a pop up appeared on her screen with a loud ringing noise following it. He was apparently wasting no time wanting to get down to business and couldn't wait to call her. She was taken back by the sudden action, but decided to answer it but only with her voice. No webcam.

"H-Hello, Ladybug?" Even though Marinette didn't have her webcam on, Chat Noir had no problem having his on. He was rubbing the back of his neck and blushing as he stared at the screen. Marinette was taken back by seeing him like this. It didn't seem like he was flirting, but rather, he was awkward. It was completely different than the person who she saw during the stream.

"I'm here Chat Noir." she responded back. She watched as the man smiled, hearing her voice. She felt the warmth that she felt earlier blossom inside her chest, seeing the beautiful smile spread across his face, but she managed to push it back, remembering what he was like before. "So you wanted my assistance?"

"Umm, yeah, I did." He turned away from the screen. "I've been wanting to improve my content for a long time now but… haven't been able to. I was hoping you could help?"

"You could start by playing the game for one." She watched as the man on the other side of the screen began laughing and holding his sides, but she didn't find what was so funny. He turned back to the screen and wiped away a tear. "Of course. That's a must after all! What else?"

She began to ramble on about how she does her own content, talking about how she observes her environments and other characters and makes comments about them, often turning out to be witty. She continued to talk about a variety of different topics that she felt would help him out. She was surprised at herself that she was able to talk about so much, but she just kept going and going.

When she was done explaining, she found him staring lovingly at the screen, smiling. He said after a few moments of silence, "You have a beautiful voice, you know that?"

She was taken aback by the sudden compliment. She felt the warmth she felt earlier return and intensify but at the same time, she also felt insulted. She poured everything she knew about streaming to him and it didn't even seem like he paid attention. She let out a large sigh. "You know, if you're not going to take this seriously then I-"

"No! No! No!" Chat cut in, waving his hands at the screen. "I was, honestly! It's just that, I can't help but admire that you know so much about this business. You sound so confident when you talk too. Are you sure you're not a professional streamer?"

"M-Me? No. I wish I was though but I just do this as a hobby. I have another job that's more important."

"I can relate." He sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "I do this as a hobby too to escape from my job but it seems like I can't escape from it no matter what I do. At least this way, I get a little space."

She was curious as to what he meant by "that he can't escape". She wanted to question further about it, but she was afraid of the answer. This man didn't seem like anyone that would have a shady job but then again, she just met him and she doesn't know much about him. In fact, at this point, he probably knows a lot more about her than she knew about him, perhaps a little too much.

"Say, Ladybug?" She snapped out of her own thoughts and focused back on the conversation. "If you're not busy, would you like to stream together on Friday? So you can be there alongside me while I give my content a real shot using your tips?"

"I uhh… don't see the harm in that I guess."

She felt unsure of her decision, but seeing how happy Chat was on the other side of the screen brought a smile to her face. He was spinning around in his chair, cheering. She set aside her worries for the time being and smiled, watching him continue to celebrate.

"I'll talk to you on Friday then my lady!"

"… Please don't call me that."


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** Hey there everyone~ Sorry that this chapter's late :P I began posting another story too and that one was really popular so I couldn't help but post another chapter of that as my weekly update XD But this fic's still going on too, don't worry~ It's every other week as promised :D

To make it up to y'all too, I want to give y'all some spoilers~ Not heavy ones XD  
Some games that I'll be writing that I'm excited to write about include Mario Kart 8, Dead By Daylight, and Pokemon Go. I have some big plans for those games and can't wait to share them with y'all ^o^ (Mario Kart 8 has already been written too. It's Chapter 6 :D)

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

 **Overwatch:** An online competitive game where teams of five players battle to complete objectives based on location. Players can choose 21 different heroes from 4 different classes: Attack, Defense, Tank, and Support to help accomplish their mission. It's all about teamwork!

The day of the stream finally came. Despite all of the previous circumstances, Marinette was looking forward to streaming with Chat. This was her first time teaching someone about one of her passions.

Chat Noir contacted Marinette on Skype just before the stream to discuss what game they should play. Seeing as it was one of her favourite games and the game introduced her to Chat, she selected Overwatch. This way too, she can teach him how to properly play and commentate the game for whenever he decides to solo stream the game next.

The stream got fired up around 7:00, where Chat began by introducing his partner for the night to the audience. "Meow everyone! Tonight, we have a very special guest, who will make this stream even more "amewzing" to watch. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to the one and only Ladybug!"

"Hi there everyone! It's a real pleasure to be here!"

"And it's a pleasure having you here my lady." Marinette rolled her eyes, hearing that nickname being used again. She let it slide for the time being, as she was excited to play. "Tonight, her and I will be playing Overwatch! Let's jump into a match, shall we my lady?"

Marinette silently sighed before perking herself up. "Yup! I'm all set to go!"

It wasn't long before the two of them were placed in a match. Luckily, it was just the beginning of a match so they had some time to discuss their strategy. The map selected was King's Row, and they were on offense; having to control a point then escort a payload to its destination.

Marinette watched as the random players in the lobby selected their characters and began thinking on what would be the best move. "You like going Reinhardt, right Chat?"

"Mhmm~"

"Okay! Reinhardt's great for this map! We'll need your shield to block any turrets or snipers that will be waiting for us. I'll use Tracer for the first half, then I'll switch to Mercy when we escort the payload."

Chat gave no response to Marinette's plan. She couldn't see but his viewers noticed that his eyes were wide with surprise and his mouth was hung slightly open and curved into a smile that didn't seem to fade.

"Chat?" Marinette called out, having the man snap back to reality and select the tank character as per instructions. The two raced to the doors were keeping their characters captive until the timer finished its countdown. Marinette's character Tracer bounced up and down in front of Chat's character, as a fun way of showing her excitement. Chat couldn't help but laugh and repeat the same gesture.

"Chat!" Marinette cried out, capturing his attention. "I see a Bastion at the building just in front of us. We need you to put up your shield the moment the doors open. I'll race forward while it's distracted with you and get rid of it."

"Got… it." Chat looked at his chat and began to grimace. Looking at his channel's page only made things worse for him.

"3, 2, 1!" the game's announcer counted, with the doors opening right after one. Marinette cheered as she entered the battlefield. "Alright Chat, let's do this!"

She had her character flash forward, beyond the turret character's line of sight, assuming that her partner was right behind her and giving the other teammates cover. She began attacking Bastion with Tracer's twin pistols, but much unlike her plan, the character swiveled around and started attacking her. She used one of Tracer's abilities to rewind her position and escape Bastion's sights. She then flashed to cover and began thinking of an alternative plan. "Alright Chat, for games like these, you need to call out your enemy's positions. Aside from the Bastion, who else do you see?"

Marinette waited for a response, but she never got one. However, she could hear grunting sounds coming from Chat's end. She was confused as to why he was making them, so since her character was currently safe with cover, she clicked away from the game and booted up his stream. There, she was mortified at what she saw. He was back at it again, using his looks to attract the audience. He was flexing at the camera, in sync with his character. He then leaned into his webcam and brushed his hair with his fingers and winked at the camera. "That Bastion is a little too scary for us. We're just going to hang back here for a bit. You all don't mind, do you?"

Marinette's face was red with both blush and anger, but mostly from the latter. She was offended and disgusted that he was doing this again! He didn't even last long and give her teachings a chance!

"Hey Chat!" Marinette yelled at her screen, seeing that Chat was still in the Skype call with her. She waited until she knew he heard her and continued, "Play with yourself kitty!"

At that moment, she ended the call and left the game; not caring about the penalties the game imposes for quitting mid-match. She just had to get away from Chat Noir.

She slumped in her seat and sighed. She reached over and grabbed a nearby pillow and screamed into it with frustration. She just couldn't believe it. Here she was, all excited to teach Chat how to be a let's player and improve his content but yet, he tossed that all in her face.

The game's music began playing once more, reminding Marinette that she hadn't quit the game. She rolled back over to her screen and was about to hit the escape key, but something caught her eye. In the bottom left of the screen was a message, coming from Chat Noir. It said "I'm sorry."

She stared at the message and grimaced. She narrowed her eyes and said to the screen, as if she were responding to Chat, "No you're not."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

 **Bloodborne:** Ever wondered what it's like to live in a nightmare? In this action game, you create your own hunter and explore the horrifying world of Yharnam, fighting merciless creatures and slaying nightmarish enemies along the way. Known for its difficulty, this game has a tendency to unleash anger and frustration in players.

* * *

It's been four days since Marinette tried to stream with Chat Noir, only to be let down when he apparently went back to his old ways before she had a chance to teach him. Since then, Chat Noir has been trying to get into contact with her but to no avail. She kept ignoring all of his messages, still feeling insulted from what happened. She was tempted to block him, so that he wouldn't be able to send her anymore messages, but she felt that doing so would be a little too harsh. She hoped that he would get the message eventually.

Today was the day though where she would let go of the rest of her frustrations. She was going to play a game that would help her release all of her pent up rage: Bloodborne. It wasn't a game that she normally plays, she only saves it for occasions such as these. The game was actually gifted to her by one of her fellow classmate, Nathaniel Bronn, as a Valentine's Day gift. He heard that Marinette was into video games so he gifted a copy to her since he appreciated the art style and thought Marinette would also. She tried it out the day she received it, and found to be rather difficult and horrifying too with its graphics but she could see why Nathaniel said about the art style. It was quite vivid and realistic for a video game.

She fired up her Playstation 4 and prepared herself for the stream. She checked her chat and saw that people were already present and ready for the stream. She smiled, feeling happy that she has such an enthusiastic and loyal fanbase. She turned on her stream, not wanting to have them wait any longer and began playing.

* * *

"Come on, come on, NOOOOOOO!" she screeched, as a large claw made contact with her character, causing her to drop down to her knees, and finally, flat on her face. Marinette nearly tossed her controller down to the ground, having been so close to defeating the fourth boss of the game, Vicar Amelia. However, she took a deep breath and began laughing to get her frustration out. This was exactly what she needed to vent everything.

She turned to her chat, to see if anyone was offering any tips as to how to defeat the bandage wrapped wolf monster. She scrolled through, seeing a lot of encouraging messages or basic tips that she already knew, and stopped at one. She grimaced seeing who it was coming from, Chat Noir. She wanted to scroll past it but her curious eyes had already started skimming it. It said, " _Ladybug, I truly am sorry for the other day. I don't expect you to forgive me but please know my apology is genuine. I'll be watching your stream. I'm really enjoying it!"_

She sighed once again. She didn't have time to mull over his words, she had six hundred and eighty three other people waiting on her. She said into her microphone, "Chat Noir, if you're still watching, go on Skype. We'll talk when the stream's finished."

* * *

Two hours later, with the boss that gave Marinette difficulty now finally defeated and a good portion of the next area already explored, Marinette decided to call it quits for the night. She signed off from her viewers and loaded up Skype. She was reluctant to sign in, still not wanting to chat with him, but she made him a promise that they'd talk once the stream was done and she was one to actually keep their promises.

As she had anticipated, Chat Noir was online and waiting for her. Before she could click on his name to chat with him, a window popped up saying that he was calling her. She sighed and accepted the call. Like the first time they met, he had his video on while she just had her audio.

He waved at the screen and smiled. "Ladybug!"

"Hey Chat." she answered, slumping back into her seat. "So about that apology of yours-"

"Before you say anything, I want you to know something." A small beep suddenly sounded from Marinette's computer, coming from the conversation between her and chat. When she checked to see what it was, she saw a link that directed her to Chat Noir's channel. "That's the VoD from my stream when you were on. Please, have a look at it."

She was rather confused as to why he wanted her to do it, but she complied to his request. He told her to skip ahead until they were playing, which she did. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary when the two of them were bouncing up and down together, and she saw his expression when she was explaining her plan but didn't think anything of it. She noticed soon after that point how his smile quickly turned to a frown, how his eyes darted back and forth frantically for some reason.

She turned to the chat replay from the stream, to see if that was the cause of his distress. Much to her surprise, it was. She watched as others in the chat appeared to be yelling at Chat Noir, using all caps and a lot of explanation marks. They were saying things like "I didn't come here for this!" "Come on Adrien, woo us like you always do!"

Mixed in with some of the messages too were people criticizing Marinette, asking who she was and why she got to be so lucky to play with them. There were even a couple of death threats from what she could pick out from the flood of messages.

"Chat…"

"That's why I did what I did." he said, capturing Marinette's attention. She saw that he was looking down at the ground, appearing to be ashamed. "I was losing viewers rather quickly too. I got scared and gave the audience what they wanted. I was genuine when I said I want to better my content and was willing to give you a shot. But, I guess you see now that's proving to be more of a difficult task."

"Chat, listen to me. You can't let your viewers keep pressuring you into doing this. You have to be strong enough to say 'Okay, I don't care if I lose viewers, I want to do things MY way because it's MY channel!' Do you understand?"

Chat Noir nodded at the screen. "I do."

"Trust me Chat, it will pay off better in the long run." She placed her hand on the screen, thinking back to a time in her past that she had hoped she wouldn't have to recall. "Believe me when I say it, I've been there, I've done that. You have to ask yourself, do you want to be a puppet for your viewers or do you want to be yourself?"

"I…" Chat paused and thought about her question. He bit his lower lip, feeling stress from the question. The answer was obvious to him, but at the same time, he had his doubts. "I want to be myself Ladybug."

Marinette smiled, feeling relieved that he did choose that option. She was a little bit afraid that he would've gone with the puppet route, but she didn't need to worry about that now. "I'm glad Chat."

"But!" he said, holding up a finger. "You said that I have to be strong enough to accept losing viewers and disappointing the audience. Well, the fact is Ladybug, I'm not. At least, alone. Would it… would it be alright if you could be there with me and help me?"

She looked at his video and saw the adorable expression he had, it was almost like a kitten begging for its food. She giggled. "Well, I kind of have to be after all. I did promise to be your teacher and just because you agreed to do things on your own doesn't mean your content has magically improved. We have a lot of work to do Chat Noir."

"Oh," Chat began chuckling along with Marinette's giggled. He wasn't sure if she was serious or not, but he didn't care. He was just glad that she agreed to be with him. "Thanks Ladybug."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 **Move or Die:** A fun multiplayer game, much in the style of Mario Party. Compete in various minigames and the first to reach a certain amount of points wins! But there's a twist: You must constantly keep moving or risk death.

* * *

"Greetings my miraculous viewers!" Marinette gleefully began, firing up yet another livestream for her viewers to watch. "Today, we have a very special stream for you all. Today, I'm joined by a very special guest! Care to introduce yourself?"

"Hello there everyone." another voice spoke, this one belonging to a male whom Marinette was acquainted with. "My name's uhh… Chat Blanc."

She blinked a couple of times, staring at her screen with a blank expression on her face. "Excuse me for a second everyone."

She pushed a button on her keyboard, which muted her microphone for the audience, but not for the person that was in the call with her. "Seriously? Chat Blanc? That was the best you could come up with?"

"What's wrong with Chat Blanc?"

"What's wrong? What's wrong?! I thought you said-… But you wanted to… Oh never mind."

She sighed. She wanted to try introductions again, but this time with a different name for her associate but it was too late. The name had already been established and others had heard it so it was too late to go back now.

As part of helping Chat Noir grow as a livestreamer, Marinette came up with the idea that he join some of her livestreams from time-to-time, where she could teach him some tools of the trade, without worry of disappointing and losing viewers. She came up with the idea too that he come up with a new alias for when he's on her stream so that he won't accidentally attract any unwanted attention. Unfortunately for her, that idea fell flat thanks to Chat's lack of imagination.

"So, Chat… Blanc and I will be streaming this adorable game for you all today! It's called Move or Die! It's a lot like Mario Party, except there's a twist! You have to keep moving, or else, you die!"

"I was just _dying_ to play this with you Ladybug!" Chat jested. Marinette pinched the area between her eyes and groaned. "Chat, what did I tell you about puns on my stream?"

"That they'll be the _death_ of you?"

Her chat started to flood with responses to the puns, most of them encouraging the man and some were even continuing the stream of puns for him. Meanwhile, Marinette shook her head and continued to groan at these puns. She took a deep breath in and said to her stream, "You know everyone, I don't HAVE to stream with him. I can kick him out of the call anytime I wish and play something else for you all."

"No! No! I'll be good!" Chat protested. The sudden urgence in his voice was enough to make Marinette giggle. "Good kitty. Let's play, shall we?"

The scene on her livestream changed to the game that she had introduced earlier, Move or Die. She was in the lobby of the game, waiting for her partner to join up with her. It didn't take too long for him to appear in the lobby once she invited him, both physically in game and verbally too.

"So, which character are you-" Before Marinette could finish, the image of a grey fluffy cat with stubby legs appeared on screen, with the word "READY" appearing underneath of it. Marinette blinked a couple more times, taken off guard that he chose his character so quickly. "Well… alright then!"

"Ever since I unlocked this little furball, I haven't played any other character since!" Chat commented as he chuckled. "I just love him too much. Plus, you gotta admit, he's the absolute most purr-"

Adrien stopped mid-sentence. Even though he couldn't see Ladybug, he could sense that she was glaring at him, which she was. She had her mouse hovered over the red "End Call" button on Skype, just waiting for him to finish.

"Most… suiting character for me! Yeah, that's what I meant to say, suiting. Don't you agree LB?"

Marinette smiled, happy that he didn't continue the pun and that she didn't need to cease communication with him too. She hovered her mouse away from the end call button and turned her attention back to the game. "Yep!"

She began scrolling through the game's characters, trying to find one that she felt like playing as for the time being. She hadn't unlocked many of the game's characters, but she had enough to provide her with a decent selection. She scrolled past the skeleton character, the hamburger, the ghost, and the jack-o-lantern characters. She was tempted by the cupcake character, but finally settled on the one that looked like a piece of toast, with a small slice of butter on top of its head.

As soon as she readied up, the two were taken to a new screen where icons with words floated all around the screen. At the top, it said "Chat, vote what games Ladybug should play."

"Whoa, this is new!" Chat commented, his eyes wide with surprise with seeing this screen. Marinette giggled at Chat's surprise. "Yep! They added in a feature to allow Twitch viewers to decide on various things like what game modes we should play. Hope you don't mind!"

"Not at all. Just took me by surprise is all."

"Well that makes even then, kitty."

The two waited for a grand total of thirty seconds, where after this time, some of the icons began to fade away, leaving only five left which were the most popular game modes that were selected by Ladybug's viewers.

The game immediately transitioned them into the first minigame that they were to play; Bomb Tag. Both Marinette and Chat groaned in frustration once they saw this. Once they heard each other's groans, they perked up a bit with surprise.

"You hate Bomb Tag too Ladybug?"

"Yeah, it's not my favourite. The netcode of this game isn't well adjusted for this mode." She sighed. "For those that don't know, this minigame is exactly as it sounds. One person has a bomb and has to chase others around. If they touch someone then the bomb gets passed to them."

"Yeah, but thanks to lag, it makes this minigame more frustrating than it should be." Chat continued on for her. Marinette nodded at her screen and sighed once again. "Oh well. Best of luck to you Chat."

"And to you my lady."

"Ready?" the announcer called out from the game, with the words "Move! Or! Die!" appearing in the center as a countdown. The two began running around the map, as per the game's main instruction. A little belt came out from the ceiling and plastered itself on Chat's cat character.

"Haha! You got the bomb first!" Marinette taunted, having her character start distancing itself away from Chat.

"I may be first, but I won't be the one to have it last!" he called out, as he began his pursuit after her. He chased her a short ways across the map but as soon as she jumped onto one of the platforms above them, he ambushed her and transferred the bomb over to her. The shock from this caused her to squeal, and provide Chat an opportunity to escape.

He jumped to the top right corner of the map, using an invisible platform to help him to his destination. Unfortunately for Marinette, she didn't see the platforms when Chat used them and tried jumping up to the corner her own way.

"Ha ha! Can't reach me!" Chat taunted, as he began jumping up and down repeatedly. The bomb across Marinette's character began ticking even faster, which sent her into a frustrated panic. She kept trying to get up into the corner but kept failing.

"Come on, come on!" she said, running away from where she was and finding an alternative route. She managed to find the invisible blocks that Chat used and raced alongside them, but unfortunately, before she could reach him, a large "POP" was heard on the screen.

"Darnit!" Marinette slumped back in her seat, thinking she had lost the first round, but to her surprise, the game zoomed onto her character, who looked anything but blown up. When the results screen came up, where it showed both players and the score, her character descended from the top of the screen and she received 2 points.

"What!" Chat cried out, feeling astonished by this result. Marinette looked to her chat and began smirking when she saw what her viewers said what happened. "Hey, Chat. You weren't moving."

"I was though!"

"Jumping doesn't count; you have to move back and forth."

There was silence from the other end. For a moment, she thought that he left the call in frustration, but she was proven wrong when she heard a loud screaming noise come from his end. She giggled, enjoying seeing her associate in distress like this. "Don't worry Chat, there's still a lot more games! First to twenty points wins don't forget!"

"Oh, right. What have we got now?"

Marinette turned her attention back to the game and saw that they were already on the instruction screen for the next game. She shook her head, realizing what it was. "It's Twitch Qwerty Bombs."

"What?"

"It's another new feature for the Twitch integration. Basically, we're in front of a keyboard and the viewers will type letters into the chat. Eventually, the letters on the keyboard will explode and kill us if we're near so we have to avoid them."

"Oh, gotcha!"

The two of them started up the game. They immediately started running around the arena once again. Marinette stuck to the right side of the screen whereas Chat kept to his left. The two waited as Marinette's chatroom became flooded with singular letters. The keys on the keyboard began glowing, corresponding to the chat's selections. Marinette frowned when she saw what the majority of the letters were that were glowing. Y, U, H, J, N, M were among the most popular letters, while A and S occasionally flashed.

A reticle finally appeared on the H and J keys, causing Marinette to jump down from her position to the lower level of the screen. The screen shook when the two keys exploded, causing difficulty for the two players to see. When it stabilized, Marinette saw that a new reticle appeared on the M key, which was unfortunately where she was standing.

The M exploded, causing Marinette's character to explode along with it. The game zoomed into Chat's cat, declaring him the winner. Chat cheered as his cat descended from the top of the screen and received two points. Marinette, on the other hand, groaned and slumped down in her seat, rolling her eyes as she did.

"Everything alright Ladybug?" Marinette looked at her screen and sighed. "Yeah, I'm fine Chat. Just that what I expected to happen, happened."

"Which was…?"

"You ever hear the term 'Kill the streamer?'"

"Here and there."

"It's something you'll have to deal with when you stream on your own. Viewers will kill the streamer any chance they get and will purposely go out of their way to do so sometimes. They get a kick out of it when in most cases, it just annoys the streamer and makes them rage, which is what they go for too."

"That's rude of them! I wouldn't dare dream of doing that to any other else, especially you Ladybug."

"Yeah, but there's not much I can do about it." She sighed once again. "I'm used to it and you'll get used to it too. Let's continue on with the next game, shall we?"

The next game that they were to play was one that they were quite familiar with; Falling Blocks. The objective of this minigame was to survive as blocks drop from above. If they touch a player, they die. The last one standing wins.

The game started up immediately. Chat immediately retreated his character to the middle level of the three tiered map while Marinette stuck with the top. A few blocks started dropping from above, but the two were able to evade them without much trouble.

As time went on, the amount of blocks falling increased as well as their speed. When Marinette sensed Chat was starting to struggle, she raced down to middle tier and over to Chat, pushing his character. This took him by surprise, as he didn't expect that she'd do something like that. He fought against her pushing and tried to push her back.

The two were locked in combat, both of them trying to push the other back and sabotage them. They were heated up, never giving up with their struggle.

A block started falling from above, that was in the dead center of their battle. Chat saw this as an opportunity he could take advantage of.

As soon as it was close to their heads, he moved his character the opposite direction from before, which made Marinette push forward just enough so that she was directly under the block. She let out a squeal where she heard her character get squished by this block, and had to watch as the game gave Chat two points for winning the round.

"Oh well, that was a good game Chat!"

"Hey, Ladybug, mute your stream for a second please?" he asked. She was confused, but complied to the request. "Okay, it's just you and me, what's up?"

"Why did you do that?" Her eyebrows raised in confusion, not understanding the meaning behind his question. She asked him to elaborate, which he did. "You would've been safe if you had stayed up top or taken to your other side. You probably could have won too. I was starting to struggle."

"Oh, that." She waved her hand about, dismissing the question as if it was nothing. However, she remembered that Chat couldn't see and decided to explain herself instead, seeing as this was another opportunity where she could teach Chat something. "You see Chat, when you play on camera, you have to make things entertaining for your viewers. You can't play how you would normally play if you were on your own. With a lot of viewers, you have to keep their interest and that means doing some risky and stupid things, like just now. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I consider it a win if it keeps their attention."

She was met with more silence on Chat's end. The reason this time was because once again, he was impressed by her knowledge of streaming and admired her. He couldn't bring himself to say anything. Instead, he absorbed her words and lost himself in his thoughts.

"Chat?" The mention of his name snapped him back into reality. "Ready for more?"

"You bet Ladybug!"

* * *

It was a long and hard fought battle, but with a score of 20 to 14, Ladybug came out as the ultimate winner of the first full length game of Move or Die with Chat. The chat was filled with congratulations to the streamer, while Chat offered his praise to her too. She thanked the both of them and took a bow, that none could see but she did it anyways because it made her feel even more proud of her accomplishment.

"Hey Ladybug, can we take five please?"

"Sure Chat."

As Chat left his station, she put on some music for her stream and switched the visual to a picture of an adorable Ladybug saying "Taking a break! Be right back!"

She spent the time for the break checking her cellphone. As it turns out, she missed a text from her best friend Alya that was sent during their game. She read the text and began blushing from what she said.

" _So, you and Chat Noir are finally together, huh?_ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)"

She immediately texted back a response saying " _NO! NOT LIKE THAT!_ "

The thought of her and Chat together, the way that Alya was implying, made her flustered. She had to admit that when she first met him she was attracted to him but since then, her feelings towards him have been wavering and she didn't know what to feel about him. She didn't want to think about that either, she was content in keeping her focus on gaming and teaching him her ways.

She received a response back from her friend, this time saying, " _You can try and deny it as much as you like, but I've been watching the stream._ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) _You two are cute together!_ "

She knew where this was going. She sent one last reply saying, "I'm just teaching him how to be a good streamer. That's it." and tossed away her phone, not looking forward to her friend's next response.

"I have returned my lady." her partner said, capturing her attention. "Up for some more?"

She shook the thoughts from her head and said "Yeah! I'm up for a couple more games!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 **Mario Kart 8** : Nintendo's most iconic characters from the hit video game series, Super Mario Bros, come together with some new faces to race in go karts and prove who's the fastest! Race around and hit each other with items to claim the highest position you can!

The next stream that Marinette hosted, she decided to play Mario Kart 8 for her viewers and invited Chat Noir for it. She claimed to him that it would be a good experience for to learn, seeing as now he has CPU controlled characters to deal with as he commentates but really, she just wanted to play Mario Kart with him.

"So my lady, who are you going to pick?" Chat asked, as he contemplated the same question. Ladybug looked at all the different characters she could choose from and thought. When it comes to Mario Kart, she has a few characters that she likes to play as but as for who to play for the upcoming races, she wasn't sure. She wanted to have fun with Chat Noir and perhaps toy with him a bit so she had to pick a racer that would do just that.

Her eyes drifted over to the left side of the character selection screen and her lips began to curl into a smile as she found perfect character that fit her bill.

"You'll see!" she slyly said as she locked in her choice. She assembled her racing kart and went to the track select screen. "Anything you wanna race on Chat?"

"Ladies choice!" he purred. She rolled her eyes to his response and examined the choices. "Hmm… How about Mario Circuit?"

"As you wish my lady!" Chat said, selecting the course. Ladybug rolled her eyes again and locked in her choice. The roulette began toggle back and forth between the choices, but Ladybug thought it was unnecessary considering what the only choices were. Despite that, Chat cheered when the roulette selected on his choice of the track. Ladybug just giggled and readied herself.

"Be right back!" Chat said as the track began to load. Ladybug couldn't help but think of how easy it would be to win if he didn't make it back in time. Despite her thoughts, she said to him "Hurry back!"

As soon as the track loaded, the two racers were taken to a lush green environment with nice smoothly paved track on the ground below them. Ladybug's character waited as the character known as Lakitu floated above them and began to count down.

"Back!" Chat called out, just as the turtle on a floating cloud held out its index finger as a "1" appeared on the screen. Just as the race was about to start, Ladybug called out "GO!"

As she took an early lead, she could hear some mechanical noises coming from Chat's end of the call. "Everything alright over there?"

"Yeah! I just fumbled with my controller a bit! I'm good!"

Being already quite ahead of the other racers, she drifted her eyes to the map of the track on the right side of the screen. She noticed that there was one character that was trailing quite far behind the other racers. She giggled at the thought that Chat Noir chose that character. She asked, "Are you Cat Peach?"

"Ring a ding ding LB!" Ladybug couldn't contain her laughter, her thoughts now being confirmed. "Isn't she just purrfect."

Her laughs quickly turned to groans and grunts at the mention of the pun. Although, thanks to it, she realized why he chose her in the first place. She still thought it was funny though.

"Now let's see who you are my lady."

Chat began examining the track himself as he raced, quickly making his way up in the ranks. He had just passed Toadette and the baby version of Princess Peach so he knew that neither of them were the streamer. Koopa Troopa was just in front of him and it was shown that it wasn't her so that only left him with 8 other options left. The other racers from what he could see were Wario, Waluigi, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Mario, Princess Peach, Baby Mario, and the guest character from The Legend of Zelda, Link. He checked the placings and saw that the racers in the first two positions, which he assumed she would be, which were Bowser and Princess Peach. He smiled as he deduced who he thought she was. He could feel his heart bloom at the thought of what she chose.

"Oh Ladybug!" he gleefully called out. "I know who you are~!"

"Come and get me then~" she retorted.

"You know I will!" Chat began to chuckle. "I'm coming for you, Princess!"

After a few heart pounding twists and turns, many items that caused both racers to rage, and a couple of Bullet Bill items that helped Chat catch up, the two were on their last lap and nearing the finish line. Bowser was in first place, followed by Cat Peach, then Princess Peach. There was one last item box for the racers before they reached the finish line to help them gain a last minute lead.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Ladybug kept repeating as she was approaching the finish line. Her last item for the race was a stack of coins which she used immediately to help her accelerate faster towards the goal, although being completely defenseless.

In Chat Noir's characters paws was a red shell, a homing item that targets the racer just in front of the user. Chat smiled as Princess Peach drew up closer to him. "Don't worry Princess, I'll secure the first place finish for you!"

He tossed the shell in front of him which immediately homed into the turtle king in front. He sat back and waited for the praise that his lady friend was about to give him, smiling as he thought about all the different things she could say.

To his surprise though, instead of praise, all he could hear coming from Ladybug's end was large high pitched shrieks.

"Ladybug! What's wrong!" Chat asked, sitting back up and examining the screen. He watched as Princess Peach took first place finish, with himself taking second and Bowser slowly coming up behind them as he took third. "You got first place!"

"NO I DID NOT! I GOT THIRD PLACE THANKS TO YOU AND YOUR RED SHELL!"

"Third place?" The results came up on Chat's screen and he saw an icon of Bowser in third place and right beside it was the name "Ladybug."

His heart sunk and his eyes grew wide as he realized the error that he made. "I thought you were Princess Peach!"

"NO! I WAS BOWSER! I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU KNEW WHO I WAS!"

"I did! At least… I thought I did."

"DID YOU NOT SEE MY NAME ABOVE BOWSER'S HEAD?"

Chat stopped and thought. "That's what it said?"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ladybug shrieked again, grabbing the nearest pillow and letting out all of her frustrations into it. Chat couldn't help but burst out into laughter because of the way the whole situation played out.

"LAUGHING?! WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?!"

Chat stopped immediately, realizing he had been caught even though he wasn't trying to hide it. He tried to think of a reason that would try and ease the situation and not make her hate him. Unfortunately for him, he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "Kill the streamer?"

"Kill. The streamer." Ladybug deadpanned at the screen. "KILL THE STREAMER!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?"

"I uhh… oh look Ladybug! The next race is about to start! Better pick a track before it's too late."

Ladybug glared Chat Noir`s Skype icon on her computer screen. "I'm going to get you back for that Chat."

And get back she did. For the rest of the grand prix, she hoarded her items and waited at the finish line for Chat Noir to come near her. She took it upon herself to hit him with as many items as she could and ensure that he got the lowest place possible, even if it meant that she got a low position herself.

By the end of all four races, she had finished second overall and acquired a silver trophy to commemorate her place. Chat Noir on the other hand, thanks to Ladybug`s sabotaging, only placed fourth overall. All that he received for his placement was a bunch of congratulatory claps from Lakitu.

"Phew." Ladybug sighed, placing her hand over where her heart was. It was beating faster than she had ever felt it beat before, the intensity of the races really working her up. Now that it was over, she was calming herself down but was craving for more. "Want another set of races?"

"NO!"

From that day on, Chat Noir knew never to cross Ladybug when it comes to racing games, especially when she gets near the finish line. This would pose a problem however when he starts playing them with her on his channel. He was not looking forward to that day.


End file.
